The Complete Guide to Shopify Summer Editions 2024

Introducing the Summer ’24 Edition

Shopify Summer Editions 2024 was launched on June 24, 2024, and it comes with numerous features aimed at streamlining Shopify stores and boosting sales.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore all the essentials you need to know about the latest Shopify iteration.

What Is Shopify Editions?

Shopify Editions is a biannual event that Shopify organizes to showcase new updates and features on the e-commerce platform.

With over 150 updates, Shopify’s Summer ’24 Editions promises to be the e-commerce platform’s most user-friendly and powerful release yet.

Key Features Announced in Shopify’s Summer 2024 Edition

Shopify’s Summer 2024 Edition emphasizes one key aspect: unification. In the latest edition, Shopify aims to seamlessly integrate all key workflows and infrastructure across the e-commerce platform to make it faster, more resilient, and better integrated than previous versions.

From a revamped visual editor to an AI-powered assistant, here are key features Shopify introduced with its Summer Edition that are poised to revolutionize e-commerce in 2024 and beyond.

Markets

Many merchants rely on Shopify to expand to new regions, branch into wholesale, or manage a worldwide network of Shopify stores. On previous Shopify editions, all these tasks were scattered across various parts of the Shopify admin. Well, not anymore.

Shopify Summer Editions 2024 has introduced a revamped Shopify Markets, allowing merchants to handle various tasks from a single admin panel. For instance, if you want to expand your business internationally, you’ll be able to grow your business from one central location.

Think of the reimagined Shopify Markets as a central command center where you can easily manage and customize your operations without requiring advanced knowledge of Shopify settings. Here are Shopify Markets key features:

• Centralized operations: View all your markets from a single dashboard in a single store
• Custom buyer experiences: Create tailored buyer experiences for each market without having to create multiple stores or deal with multiple workflows
• New market expansion: Create new markets, set custom catalogs and pricing, and customize store themes to suit audiences in different regions
• Simplified in-person selling: Manage pricing and product availability for different retail stores seamlessly
• Enhanced B2B expansion (for Shopify Plus): Customize store themes for different B2B markets from a single store and create different product catalogs for multiple B2B markets to improve B2B sales

Split Shipping

Sometimes, customers need items shipped to multiple addresses. In the past, they needed to place multiple orders, which was quite inconvenient. Shopify’s Summer Editions 2024 Split Shipping feature eliminates this hassle. Now, customers can send items from one order to several locations, making checkout more frictionless.

Here are Split Shipping’s key features:

• Shipping transparency: Allows customers to see if their orders will arrive in multiple shipments at checkout
• Flexible shipping options: Allows customers to choose between multiple shipping options, such as the most affordable, fastest, or even customized for each shipment
• Shop Promise checkout badge: Allows merchants to display the Shop Promise badge at checkout, boosting customer trust
• Subscription control: Allows customers to control shipping speeds for subscription orders

Shopify Magic

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how numerous e-commerce stores run their operations. Shopify Magic introduces various sophisticated AI tools designed to streamline your store operations. Here are Shopify Magic’s standout features:

• Sidekick: Shopify Sidekick is an AI-powered personal assistant that offers customized business guidance and automates tasks. For instance, Sidekick can create customer segments and send personalized special offer emails to different customers
• AI image generation: Modify images easily across Shopify’s online store editor, email editor, and even the mobile app
• Enhanced customer engagement: E Shopify Magic provides AI responses to customer queries in Shopify Inbox using your store data, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and conversions

Rebuilt Analytics

Analytics are critical to the success of your online store. Why? Analytics allow you to determine what’s working and identify areas for improvement.

With Shopify’s Summer 24 Edition, Shopify has completely rebuilt its analytics to offer smarter, faster, and more intuitive analytics tailored to your business’s needs. Here are the key features of rebuilt analytics:

• Intuitive dashboard: Monitor crucial performance at a glance from your dashboard and easily drag, drop, resize, add, or delete metric cards to customize your dashboard
• Comprehensive reports: Get answers to your most important business questions to make informed business decisions
• Custom reports: Create tailored reports to obtain in-depth insights into your business’s performance

New Theme Style Settings

Want to showcase your brand’s unique personality across your storefront? Shopify’s new theme style settings in the Summer 24 Edition allow you to do just that. Here are its notable features:

• Customizable layouts: Modify settings like direction, alignment, or the gap between image blocks to create a distinctive appearance
• Device-specific customization: Customize your site’s appearance across different devices, including mobile, without requiring separate settings
• Fluid layouts: Use static blocks and conditional logic to create complex layouts like an accordion

Hydrogen Visual Editor

The Hydrogen Visual Editor, powered by Utopia, promises to revolutionize headless e-commerce, making it easier to build headless storefronts. In the past, small content and design changes often took a lot of time and required developer intervention. Well, not anymore.

With the new Hydrogen Visual Editor, your entire team can now easily make changes using the intuitive visual editor, eliminating the need for developer help. Here are the editor’s key features:

• Visual collaboration: Allows developers and non-technical team members to work together using a WYSIWYG editor
• Real-time syncing: All changes sync to GitHub in real-time, ensuring developer code remains the source of truth
• Integrated data management: Easily import data from various sources, such as metaobjects, your content management system (CMS), or the Shopify Storefront API
• Developer-oriented: Allows developers to leverage their favorite tools, such as VS Code and GitHub, to manage workflows

Managed Markets

Formerly known as Markets Pro, Managed Markets makes it easier to sell internationally by handling operational complexities such as tax filing, duties, fraud protection, custom documentation, and more. Here are its standout features:

• Simplified catalog restrictions: Automatically restrict items prohibited at customs and view why they’re prohibited
• Comprehensive pricing: Add duties and import taxes directly in product prices
• Multiple shipping options: Easily import data from various sources, such as metaobjects, your content management system (CMS), or the Shopify Storefront API
• Auto-editing: Edit and update international orders after purchase without worrying about duties, taxes, and currency fluctuations due to automatic updates

Ship to & From Retail Stores

Customers want to enjoy the convenience of having their orders delivered to them or picking them up in-store. Shopify’s Summer Editions 2024 introduces a new feature, allowing customers to choose their preferred option. The new update supports the following:

• In-store pickups: Enables customers to collect products at their preferred stores while allowing merchants to set up cross-store transfers
• Enhanced fulfillment workflow: Allows merchants using Shopify POS to fulfill orders using multiple stores, easing the pressure on a busy store

Easy Retail Checkout

Customers expect to spend minimal time at checkout. In fact, about seven out of ten shoppers expect checkout to be 4 minutes or less, while about three out of ten expect it to be just 2 minutes.

Shopify’s Summer Editions 2024 introduces various features designed to expedite payment processing through Shopify POS. Here are its key features:

• One-tap digital receipts: Allows merchants to provide digital receipts for recognized Shop Pay customers
• Simple customer and staff information capture: Automatically collect customer details like email address and keep tabs on staff performance at checkout
• Streamlined return rules: Automatically determine product return eligibility and provide context for staff on return policies

Shopify Campaigns & Audiences

One of the biggest challenges Shopify store owners face is converting prospects to loyal customers. Shopify Audiences and Campaigns make discovering high-quality leads on top digital ad platforms easy.

Here are key features of Shopify Audience and Campaigns:

• Custom audience lists: Capitalize on Shopify’s powerful algorithms and commerce signals to identify quality leads Shop Pay customers
• Audience retargeting boost lists: Increase conversions and lower customer acquisition costs with powerful retargeting features
• External ad promotions: Run advertising campaigns on other ad platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google and only pay for conversions